Chapter 32
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Translator: penny
Chapter: 32
Chapter Title: Kurokage
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Before the dust even had a chance to settle, I grabbed the bastard by the collar again and checked their face.
The hood had come off, revealing what was underneath.
It was unexpected.
I'd imagined some vicious assassin or a demi-human, but standing before me was an utterly ordinary-looking young girl.
Except for the fact that her eyes had a crazed glint to them.
"What the hell are you?"
I demanded, but the girl just furrowed her brow and clamped her mouth shut.
She's a tough one, I thought, tightening my grip.
"Keep your mouth shut and you'll die. Answer my questions."
"If you kill me, you'll die too."
"Then I'll just break your arms and legs and let you live."
"……!?"
Her eyes went wide as saucers.
"What, you think I won't?"
"…Ku… Kurokage."
"……What?"
"That's the name bestowed upon this flesh."
She was dead serious.
Her vacant, distant gaze stared off into empty space, her expression grave.
I couldn't help but let out a disbelieving chuckle.
"Kurokage? You Japanese or something?"
She hesitated at my question.
Then she slowly, very honestly, shook her head no.
"That crap doesn't fly."
"……Hmph."
She turned her head away sharply, pride clearly wounded.
She really was full of it.
I didn't set her down on the ground and kept pressing her.
The most important thing right now was figuring out if she was an enemy, an ally, or some uncontrollable wildcard.
"What were you doing hiding in the carriage earlier? Scouting ahead? Or waiting to backstab us?"
"No enemies in sight."
She replied shamelessly.
"Don't lie to me. Cut the games and answer properly. I don't have time to joke around."
"…The world just forgot about me."
"……Ha."
She murmured wistfully, gazing into the forest.
"I'm used to it. Ever since I was little, I've been… like dust. No one could see me. That's when I realized it. I've been chosen by the darkness."
She's nuts.
I stared straight into her eyes.
Dazed look. I couldn't tell if she was unfocused or deliberately avoiding my gaze.
Definitely not right in the head.
Whether she truly believed she'd been chosen by darkness or was just lost in her role didn't matter.
What mattered were the facts.
Even with my senses heightened to the extreme, I hadn't noticed her moving.
And when the horde of ghouls swarmed the carriage, she'd come out unscathed without a scratch.
Her stealth skills are the real deal, at least.
From behind me, I heard the bucktoothed guy chatting with Kim Jun-ho.
"Big Brother. What's with that girl? Is she an NPC like the Saintess?"
"Who knows… Her outfit doesn't scream player. Maybe some hidden piece?"
They had no clue what was going on.
Makes sense—they probably thought the parties were full with four from theirs and four from ours, totaling eight.
To them, unaware that Yuriel didn't count toward the matching limit, this girl just looked like some random event NPC that popped up out of nowhere.
I didn't bother correcting them.
No point in explaining—it'd just give me a headache.
Anyway, not the time to slack off.
Woooooo—
The shadows in the forest were growing longer.
From afar, wolf howls and ghoul shrieks started up again.
This wasn't a perfect safe zone. Just a temporary clearing.
The undead, catching our scent, were closing in.
"Hey! Get on board. Everyone, let's move out!"
I gave up on further interrogation.
She didn't seem like someone who'd listen anyway, and priority one was clearing the quest, no matter what.
"If I catch you pickpocketing again, I won't go easy next time."
"Don't touch me! The servant of darkness can't be handled carelessly…"
Whatever she muttered, I hoisted her up like a sack of rice.
She was light.
"Shut up and stay still. Before I tie you up tight."
Whoosh—
I tossed her unceremoniously into the cargo hold.
"Kyaaak!"
A perfectly girlish scream erupted from her, her consistent act shattered as she crashed in like luggage.
"Alright, everyone on? Let's go!"
At my shout, Kim Jun-ho snapped out of his daze and cracked the reins.
"Hyaah!"
Rumble!
The carriage shook violently as it tore off down the forest path again.
I gripped the railing and glanced inside the cargo hold.
The so-called Kurokage, crammed in the corner, was straightening her rumpled clothes and regaining her composure.
I could almost hear her muttering something like, 'Hmph, such a brute.' My head throbbed.
Stay put and don't cause trouble. If you don't want to die.
If it weren't for the quest conditions, I'd have given her a proper lesson already.
I swallowed a sigh and glared at the thickening forest gloom.
Once we fully exited the forest, an eerie landscape unfolded.
[Nameless Ruined Village]
Crumbled stone walls, shattered windows.
And dozens of corpses strewn along the roadside.
Clear signs of a monster sweep, yet oddly, the bodies looked pristine.
They must've just died.
The blood hadn't coagulated, and the flesh still seemed warm.
"Short stop. Everyone, guard the carriage perimeter for approaching monsters."
An ominous chill ran down my spine, but I hopped off the carriage anyway.
"Yuriel. Check that house over there for candles and blankets. Grab every oil canister you see."
"Y-Yes! Got it!"
I dove into ransacking the empty houses without hesitation.
Throwing knives, ropes, low-grade potions.
I swept up anything useful.
My expansion-enchanted magic bag swelled to bursting.
Almost the last one.
The final stop: the largest building, likely the village chief's house.
The memory from the 2D screen had just shifted to 3D. Data doesn't lie.
Bam!
I kicked in the locked door and stepped inside.
Dust-filled room.
Straight to the display cabinet.
But.
"……?"
Someone was standing in front of it.
I'd clearly broken down the door first.
The windows were shut tight, the floor untouched by even a speck of dust.
In the middle of this sealed room stood the girl I'd tossed into the cargo hold earlier.
She was rummaging through a shriveled fruit basket next to the jewel box I was after.
Crunch.
She picked up an apple, bit into it, and turned to me.
Blank expression.
"You… when did you get in here?"
I narrowed my eyes and asked. She paused mid-chew and shrugged.
"Just now."
"The door was locked."
"It didn't resist."
"……."
What brazen bullshit.
"Hey. What the hell are you, really?!"
I was pissed.
But even at my irritated tone, she calmly munched her apple and plopped onto the sofa.
Looking right at home, like it was her own bedroom.
Ha, look at this bitch.
Now I was curious about her real abilities.
Not some simple stealth skill.
Teleportation? Or…
It bugged me to no end.
But no time to grab her collar and grill her. The sun was already setting.
I glared at her and snatched the [Fragment of the Sun] from the cabinet.
This was what I'd come for.
Mission accomplished—no reason to stick around.
"Not gonna ask more?"
As I ignored her and headed out, she spoke up first.
I didn't reply.
Plan change.
For now, I'd quietly observe how she moved.
Your turn to wonder about me.
I stepped outside.
She casually pocketed the rest of her apple and followed.
Maybe she's not human?
Outside, the village atmosphere had grown even heavier.
"Lord, please look upon these poor souls with mercy."
Saintess Eretssa knelt before the corpses, tears streaming down her face.
Abbot Thomas crossed himself with a somber look.
Classic NPC reaction.
But no time for sentiment.
The sun had set.
The red sunset faded, and pitch-black darkness enveloped the village.
"Eek!"
Park Yumin, guarding the carriage, flinched and gestured wildly.
"B-Big Brother! Th-that, that thing over there moved!"
She trembled, pointing at a roadside corpse.
"Everyone, battle ready! Form up around the carriage!"
At my shout, even the praying Saintess jumped and hunched her shoulders.
Crack, creak.
Stiff joints forcibly bending. Grotesque rasps from withered vocal cords. The encirclement tightened from all sides.
"B-Big Brother… sh-shouldn't we run??"
I jerked my chin at Park Yumin.
"Don't ruin the mood. Set that house ahead on fire."
"Huh? The house?"
"Hurry! We need light!"
"O-Okay…!"
Boom!
A dark crimson fireball erupted from Park Yumin's staff tip.
The rickety wooden building ignited instantly, becoming a massive torch.
The soaring flames illuminated the surroundings, revealing the writhing corpses in the darkness in stark clarity.
"Kreeee…."
"Uuuoooh…."
The corpses on the ground rose unsteadily, like grotesque dancers.
Dozens—no, over a hundred village zombie residents.
They smelled the living and charged madly.
"Th-They're coming! Block them!"
Kim Jun-ho's party panicked and raised their weapons.
Lee Seo-ah braced her shield, face tense.
But then.
"Huh? Hey! Over there! That girl!"
The bucktoothed guy pointed and screamed.
Right in the middle of the battlefield.
At the heart of the oncoming zombie horde stood that girl, blankly.
She was rubbing an apple from the chief's house on her clothes.
"Move! You wanna die?!"
Kim Jun-ho yelled.
But she didn't even twitch.
Dozens of zombies surged toward her. Rotten nails reached for her face.
That crazy…!
I clicked my tongue and reached for my sword in a hurry.
Shh.
An unbelievable sight unfolded.
The charging zombies completely ignored her, passing right through as if she weren't there, and lunged only at us.
"……?!"
It wasn't evasion.
Amid the slaughter, she yawned like a ghost from another dimension.
"Wh-what the hell?"
Lee Seo-ah's jaw dropped.
My grip tightened on my sword.
They can't perceive her? And she wasn't even invisible this time?
All that crap about the world forgetting her… wasn't just her act. It was real.
Our eyes met.
She smirked and held up her bitten apple toward me.
Like she was saying, 'See?' with that punchable expression.
I had no time to respond—sheer survival against the incoming zombies demanded my focus.